Today is Small Business Saturday, so I wanted to take a minute to encourage you to make an effort to support small businesses – in your local area as well as those businesses that are doing things that you agree with and support. And please try to do this throughout the year, not just on Small Business Saturday.

Industrial agriculture and modern culture have drastically changed the way that we deal with food. A combination of factors related to our broken food system are yielding a serious crisis that will effect everyone on earth. While there is much power in the entrenched interests that support the food system, the fundamental power is with you, the consumer. Learn what these problems are and how you are the key to solving them.

Why farm? Why choose a profession and lifestyle that runs against a cultural tide of sharply dressed, well groomed talking heads, who preach the advantages offered by fancier, cleaner, and more lucrative careers? American culture may claim to romanticize agrarian life, but the romance is less than legitimate. The answer lies with the changing ideas of American food philosophy, what I would call a purpose-driven understanding of the role of food and American food suppliers in culture.

We’re very excited about the upcoming Reformation of Food and the Family Conference in San Antonio, Texas July 12-14. True Food Solutions will have a booth there and we look forward to engaging many likeminded reformers in discussions about the challenges and solutions we’re finding as we work to transition away from the modern industrial food economy to a more natural and sustainable food system.

An accident reveals an early 20th century advertisement – one that says much about man’s trust in science and it’s ability to provide for health artificially. Peter Bringe, author of The Christian Philosophy of Food, tells the story and provides an analysis of the deeper issues.

US Department of Labor announced Thursday that it was dropping proposed regulations of family farms related to children working on the farm. This story, and the retreat of the federal government, offers some important lessons about food freedom and what needs to be done to secure our liberty in the future.

While there may be exceptions, our ‘communities’ have largely become depersonalized and non-relational. The problem is that people are still personal. We haven’t become impersonal, but how we think of people and their ideas has been corrupted. So what is the solution? And what does this have to do with food? Food has much to do with this because it is an integral part of hospitality. And hospitality is a large part of the solution to our mess.

A full discussion of food will include the social-political and cultural aspects of the environment in which the food will be cultivated, harvested, prepared, and eaten. If our society and culture in general is messed up, our food’s quality will not escape unaffected. It is good for us to then to examine our current system, and the centralization that accompanies it.